The long-tenured family-owned Italian deli was once a staple in California — and not just in the metros. Each small town could lay claim to a place where the red sauce (or gravy) was done, by hand, by a little old lady in the back who went by Mama something-or-other.
Theirs was a business model that relied on the symbiotic relationships of growers and vendors long before that kind of movement became overrun by corporate suppliers or became so unique it’s now accompanied by obligatory fine dining prices.
Now, there are only a handful left, and those that survived can lay claim to existing for a nearly century or more. Molinari Delicatessen in San Francisco, Bay Cities Italian Deli in Santa Monica, Luigi’s Restaurant and Delicatessen in Bakersfield and Piemonte’s Italian Delicatessen in Fresno are some of the standouts in the increasingly shrinking cohort…